Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

Home Archives for Mark McIntyre

That pesky sense of oughtness

Posted on Written by 2 Comments

Science has done an admirable job of exploring and describing the processes and functions of the things I see around me. I am not an astrophysicist but because of advances in science, it is possible for me to know more about the composition and operation of stars than the best scientist of several hundred years ago. We have made tremendous progress in our understanding of the physical universe.

Is and oughtSimilarly, we have also progressed in our understanding of the human body. Medical science has improved our quality and length of life. For advances in medicine I am grateful.

Yet what science does not do very well is tell us what ought to be and why. So many of the people I meet and talk with express disappointment with the way things are. We are not satisfied with who we are and what we have. There is often a sense that something is missing or that something is wrong with the world. They express a sense that the world ought to be different than it is.

If the material world is all that there is, where does this sense of oughtness come from? If our life is determined by our genetics, why do we strive to be something different? Where do we get a sense of beauty? If everything we see is the product of chance, why would a mountain be considered majestic or a sunset considered sublime? Why should loving my neighbor be better than hurting him? If survival of the fittest is the rule by which we live, why should I care about posterity or the environment? On what basis should I value tolerance of others if I make my own rules or if my life is determined by my DNA?

I cannot find adequate answers to these questions from within the materialist viewpoint. But I have yet to find a person who does not have some sense of oughtness. What is the source of a longing for something better?

I believe it was C. S. Lewis who first pointed out to me that not only does man not live up to God’s standard, he does not even live up to his own. Most men would acknowledge that lying is wrong, but the honest ones will tell you that they have uttered falsehoods. Most men would say that it is wrong to steal but would then turn around and admit that at one time or another they have taken something that does not rightfully belong to them.

What becomes apparent is that those who proclaim morality as being fluid and relative are selective in which morals they treat this way. I assume that those who take this philosophical position will call the police if they are being robbed. How is it that those who say there should be no constraints on expression of sexuality get upset when their partner “cheats” on them?

That pesky sense of oughtness seems to keep creeping in, even in those who say it doesn’t exist. This is the dilemma of the materialist. It is this sense of right and wrong that has caused many to explore the claims of Jesus Christ.

Jesus did, after all, claim to be The Truth (John 14:6).

Does the church bring freedom or coercion?

Posted on Written by Leave a Comment

Freedom or Coercion?A common perception of Christians is that we are a bunch of people who want to impose our form of Sharia law on the rest of the world. In other words, we are viewed as people who use coercion to get people to conform to a set of laws to which they would rather not be bound.

Yet what I find in Scripture should cause the Church to be perceived as a group of people who strive for freedom in response to the spiritual freedom that the Gospel has brought into our lives. Consider the following:

  • Jesus came to provide freedom – In Luke 4:16-21, Jesus reads Isaiah 61:1 in the synagogue and applies that Scripture to himself as one who brings release to the captives and freedom to those who are oppressed.
  • In Galatians 5:1, Paul reiterates Jesus’ claim that the gospel sets us free.
  • The History of the last 2,000 years supports the idea that Jesus Christ brings freedom. The countries in the world where freedom is currently experienced can tie that freedom to a Christian heritage.

We do have to admit that the Church has not had a perfect record in the area of coercion. My own experience lends support to the idea that the church can be coercive in her tactics. This is a point that the church needs to face up to and change.

In too many congregations, there is pressure to conform to a standard of behavior. In some cases the coercion is overtly proclaimed from the pulpit, in other cases the pressure is more subtle. When someone does not live up to the standard of behavior he is either directly chastised or the subject of gossip.

When I read the Gospels, I see no coercive tactics used by Jesus. Jesus told people where they went wrong, using the law as his guide, but loved them through the entire process. In reading the story of the woman at the well in John 4, it is difficult to imagine that the woman felt shamed or coerced. One gets the sense that she already felt ashamed and Jesus offered her love, hope and a way out of her bondage.

What can the Church do in response?

  1. Live out the claims of the Gospel – demonstrate by changed lives that the Gospel is indeed true. We need to allow God to “will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Phil 2:13)
  2. If we are yielded to God we can then love like Jesus loved – those outside the church community must feel our love before they will be willing to hear our message. In reading the accounts in the Gospels where people came to faith in Jesus, it is obvious to me that they felt Jesus’ love and were drawn to him by that love.

We do not need to impose any standard of behavior on the world around us. Paul wrote his letters to communities where moral decay and depravity were rampant, and I find no hint of an assertion that the church should work for a legislative response to that decay.

Coercive tactics should find no place in the church. We are called to speak the truth in love (Eph 4;15), not bully people into conformity.

God does not like bullies any more than we do.

A. W. Tozer on Prayer

Posted on Written by Leave a Comment

A. W. Tozer
A. W. Tozer

. . . we are forever asking God to do things that He either has already done or cannot do because of our unbelief. We plead for Him to speak when He has already spoken and is at that very moment speaking. We ask Him to come when He is already Present and waiting for us to recognize Him. We beg the Holy Spirit to fill us while all the time we are preventing Him by our doubts.

– A. W. Tozer

Discussion question – How do you avoid information overload?

Posted on Written by 3 Comments

Question MarkFor 21st Century humans it may be hard to envision a time when it was costly and difficult to obtain reading material. We have such a great volume of information and study resources at our fingertips on the internet and in ebook form. There are many excellent writers on the internet who are worth reading.

Add to all of this the constant barrage of television news and talk radio (Christian, sports and political). Podcasts and streaming audio are also sources of input. All of these are in addition to traditional paper books and magazines; many of us have a stack or two of books that we are planning to read one of these days.

With all of these sources of information, the volume can quickly become overwhelming. This is especially true for those of us who have day jobs which limit our reading / listening / watching time.

The question I want to pose to you is how do you handle the volume of material that comes your way? What automation tools such as an RSS reader do you use? What do you do to manage your Twitter stream if you use Twitter?  Do you follow particular bloggers or do you just check in once in a while?

How do you deal with the volume of information that comes your way every day? Please post your ideas in the comment section below. I look forward to hearing your ideas on how to avoid information overload.

Categories

Archives

Blogger Grid
Follow me on Blogarama